Friction member for container sealing machine



B. H. OSTERHAGE Feb. 18, 1969 FRICTION MEMBER FOR CONTAINER SEALING MACHINE Sheet of Filed March 25, 1966 N INVENTOR.

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fl- II INVENTOR. BSQWA O 0672-19/1 966 Amer B. H. OS'TERHAGE Feb. 18, 1969 FRICTION MEMBER FOR CONTAINER SEALING MACHINE Filed March 25,- 1966 Sheet 5 or 5 If "llliiLL IHHIH] IIIHHHHI I N VEN TOR. mm: H. Game/ 6 United States Patent 3,427,785 FRICTION MEMBER FOR CONTAINER SEALING MACHINE Bernard H. Osterhage, Lancaster, Ohio, assignor to Anchor Hocking Glass Corporation, Lancaster, Ohio, a

corporation of Delaware Filed Mar. 25, 1966, Ser. No. 537,395

US. Cl. 53331.5 Int. Cl. B65]: 7/28; B6711 1/06, 3/20 6 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The present invention relates to the sealing art and more particularly to an improved sealing element for machines used to seal containers with closure caps.

The present invention is an improvement upon sealing elements as described, for example, in United States Patent No. 3,054,234 owned by the assignee of the present invention. Such machines seal containers with closure caps by turning or twisting the caps into sealing engagement with the container mouths as container engaging members such as lugs or threads on the caps are moved into engagement with cooperating fastening members on the containers. The sealing machine of the above patent obtains this cap rotating movement by engaging spaced portions of the closure cap tops with a pair of twisting elements one of which preferably is a friction or drag shoe which retards one side of the closure cap while the other element which is a moving belt being driven in the direction of the container travel and at a higher speed urges the opposite side of the cap forwardly or in a direction opposite to the direction of the friction shoe force. The resulting forces rotate the caps and turn them downwardly and into tight sealing engagement with the container tops.

The present invention provides an improved friction or drag shoe having a long and evenly wearing friction facing pad which has been found to increase the life of the friction facing pad to an unexpectedly long period and which also minimizes the number of periodic adjustments required to maintain the friction surface in effective operating contact with the tops of the moving closure caps. Prior friction surfaces or facing pads while proving effective in providing the necessary cap rotating forces have been found to require relatively frequent replacement and also have required frequent adjustment due to their wearing or tearing and delaminating. The improved facing pad of the present invention provides a remarkable increase in pad life and a corresponding reduction in'inspection, adjustment, and maintenance. The new pad, for example, has been found to have an increased life of as much as ten times that of the prior friction shoes as previously used in such sealing machines.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to lengthen the life and reduce the maintenance requirements of sealing machines using friction drag shoes.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a friction drag shoe for a container sealing machine having lengthened life and improved wearing qualities.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved friction drag shoe for sealing machines on which the friction facing pad is easily replaced in the field by sealing machine users.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a friction facing pad with exactly controlled friction surface contours.

Other and further objects of the invention will be obvious upon an understanding of the illustrative embodiment about to be described or will be indicated in the appended claims, and various advantages not referred to herein will occur to one skilled in the art upon employment of the invention in practice.

A preferred embodiment of the invention has been chosen for purposes of illustration and description and is shown in the accompanying drawings, forming a part of the specification, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a front elevational view partially cut away showing a vacuum chamber and the sealing head of a straight line sealing machine employing an improved friction drag shoe in accordance with the present invention,

FIG. 2 is a vertical sectional view taken along line 2-2 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a friction drag shoe and the related sealing belt hold down shoe in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 4 is an exploded perspective view of a friction drag shoe in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a vertical sectional view of the friction drag shoe of FIGS. 3 and 4;

FIG. 6 is a front elevational view of one section of the friction facing pad;

FIG. 7 is an enlarged vertical sectional view illustrating the drag shoe and the belt applying a closure cap;

FIG. 8 is a bottom plan view of the drag shoe of FIGS. 3 and 4;

FIG. 9 is a bottom plan view of an alternate embodiment of a laminated facing pad having a transverse lamination;

FIG. 10 is an enlarged vertical cross-sectional view illustrating the pad of FIG. 9 applying a closure cap;

FIG. 11 is an enlarged vertical sectional view of another embodiment of a drag shoe having a laminated facing pad in accordance with the present invention; and

FIG. 12 is a fragmentary cross-sectional view of a laminated belt material.

The friction drag shoe of the present invention will be described in a typical use in a straight line sealing machine used to seal containers with lug type or threaded closure caps. Such machines are well-known and such a machine is described in detail, for example, in the above mentioned United States patent. The overall sealing machine Will be described only as far as necessary to permit the operation of the friction drag shoe of the present invention to be described in such a machine.

FIG. 1 illustrates a straight line sealing machine 1 into which filled and unsealed containers 2 are fed. As the containers 2 pass through the machine on a straight line moving conveyor 3, each container 2 first picks up a cap 4 at a cap applicator shown generally at 5. This applicator 5 which may be of the type described in the above patent applies and preferably lightly turns the cap 4 into engagement with the container 2 lugs or threads. As each container 2 moves beyond the cap applicator 5 it passes beneath the sealing head 6 where a moving sealing belt 7 and a friction drag shoe 8, of the present invention and which will be more fully described below, cooperate to further twist the closure cap 4 into tight sealing engagement with the top or finish of the container 2. The containers 2 leaving the sealing head 6 on the conveyor 3 are fully sealed having the caps 4 twisted onto the containers 2 in tightly sealed relationship and with a predetermined torque thereafter required to remove the caps 4. The sealing machine 1 illustrated in FIG. 1 has a closed vacuum chamber 9 to permit steam to be injected into the headspaces of the containers 2 prior to the application of the caps 4 thus causing steam to be trapped in the headspaces of the sealed containers and resulting in the formation of vacuums in the container headspaces when the steam cools and condenses.

The sealing head 6 illustrated in FIG. 1 is typical of the type which effectively utilizes the improved friction drag shoe 8 of the present invention. This sealing head 6, as illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2, includes a friction drag shoe 8 at the front of the head 6 and a cooperating moving belt 7 at the back of the sealing head 6. The drag shoe 8 and moving belt 7 engage opposite spaced portions of the closure cap 4 cover. Preferably, the belt 7 is driven in the direction of the moving containers 2 by a suitable drive pulley 10 at a speed in excess of that of the container 2. This provides the cap rotating force when the caps 4 are engaged by the belt 7 which cooperates with the oppositely directed cap turning force resulting from the friction force applied to the caps 4 by the friction drag shoe 8. The two oppositely directed forces thus act to rotate the caps 4 onto the containers 2. Both the belt 7 and the friction drag shoe 8 are resiliently mounted on the spring loaded mounting brackets 11 so that the belt 7 and the friction drag shoe 8 provide simultaneous cap rotating and downwardly directed cap sealing forces. The resulting force simultaneously presses the caps 4 down and rotates them with an elfective sealing action.

The friction drag shoe 8 of the present invention may be used in a sealing machine where the relative heights of the belt and the friction drag shoe are fixed or the friction drag shoe may be equally effectively utilized in a sealing head where the vertical position of the friction drag shoe and the moving belt are made interdependent so that an upward movement of the shoe is compensated for by a downward movement of the belt using a pivotal connection for the shoe and the belt mounting as diagrammatically illustrated in FIG. 7, for example.

An effective friction material for both the facing pad 12 on the friction drag shoe '8 and also for the flexible belt has been found to be conventional multi-ply flexible belting material which is commercially available.

This belting material is formed of several woven cloth or fabric layers or laminations 13 impregnated and bonded together with rubber or another elastomer 14 as illustrated in FIG. 12.

Prior practice utilized such belting material with the fabric laminations of the belt crosswise, i.e., generally parallel to the cap tops and the conveyor belt surface.

A preferred embodiment of a facing pad 12 in accordance with the present invention is illustrated in detail in FIGS. 3 through 8. This facing pad 12 includes a support plate 16 including suitable means 17 for mounting the plate 16 on the sealing head 6 (FIG. 1) to provide either a fixed shoe or a compensating drag shoe as described above. The lower surface of the plate is formed with a retaining channel 18 for the laminated facing pad 12.

The laminated facing 12 includes a series of individual sections or laminations 19 formed of the above described belt material and with the fabric laminations 13 of the belt material itself being vertically oriented as illustrated in FIG. 5 so that each of the several fabric laminations 13 making up the individual sections 19 of the facing pad 12 is exposed for contact with the tops of the moving caps 4. The channel 18 in the lower surface of the plate 16, as illustrated in FIG. 5, has one edge 20 formed integrally of the plate 16 and has an opposite removable edge or facing member 21 provided with a series of spaced apertures 22 to accommodate connecting bolts 23 which pass through these apertures 22 and correspondingly positioning apertures 24 in each of the facing sections 19;

The composite facing 12 thus consists of a series of vertically oriented facing sections 19 such as the laminated facing pad 12 illustrated in FIG. 5 which is made up of a plurality of individual appropriately shaped sections 19 held tightly in position by the facing member 21 and the several bolts 23.

It has been found satisfactory to assemble a facing pad 12 as illustrated in the plate 16 using bolts 23 only. It has also been found convenient in some cases to preassemble the pad sections 19 using a suitable adhesive and to thereafter fasten the pad to the plate 16 using adhesive or bolts or both.

The lower surface of the facing pad 12 on the friction drag shoe 8 has a preferred shape to provide a carefully calculated friction force on the moving cap tops. The exact shape may vary depending upon the type of cap and the finish or surface condition of the particular caps being used. A typical shape for the sections 19 is illustrated, for example, in FIG. 6 which includes beveled end portions 25 and a relatively fiat center portion 26. The opposite ends of the center portion 26 rise slightly toward the beveled end portions 25 providing inclined entry and exit surfaces 27. These surfaces together with the overall shape of the separate lamination sections 19 may be provided directly by cutting the sections 19 using suitably shaped dies or the sections may be first cut with a generally rectangular shape and the pad surfaces desired may be thereafter formed by cutting or grinding either the individual lamination sections 19 or the assembled facing pad 12.

The improved facing pad 12 of the invention is seen to have an additional advantage over the prior pad applied as a unit in that the vertical disposition of the material laminations and the sections 19 permits the shaping of the cap contacting surfaces to be precisely controlled and precisely duplicated. A further advantage in addition to the above described improved wearing qualities lies in the simplicity of replacement of the facing pads 12 made in accordance with the invention. It is seen that the pads 12 are readily reassembled by removing and replacing the several mounting bolts 23 with or without the use of an adhesive between the lamination sections 19. Thus, appropriately shaped individual laminations may be supplied the machine user and the user may replace the facing pad 12 when necessary by the above described simple removal and assembly operation.

FIGS. 9 and 10 illustrate an alternate embodiment of a laminated facing pad 30 in which the fabric laminations of the belting material are oriented vertically but in which the individual sections 31 formed from the belt material are arranged crosswise of the path of the moving caps 4. This facing pad 30 is similarly mounted in a channel 32 at the bottom of the plate member 33 with the individual lamination sections 31 held in position by a series of bolts 34 passing through apertures in a facing plate 35. The pad 30 formed with these transverse lamination sections 31 may be conveniently preformed by adhering the lamination sections 31 together and the shape required on the lower cap contacting surface 36 is conveniently formed by a suitable cutting or grinding operation after the pad 30 has been assembled. Alternatively, the individual laminations may be partially or completely precut to form a finished facing pad 30 of the desired configuration.

Certain closure caps, as for example continuous thread caps as illustrated at 40 in FIG. 11, are most effectively rotated into sealing position when the drag shoe 41 engages the outer portion 42 of the cap tops 43. These caps 40 are effectively handled by a facing pad 44 with an inclined friction surface 45 as illustrated in an improved laminated pad in accordance with the invention. Such an inclined surface 45 is readily obtained by providing a correspondingly inclined shape in the facing pad supporting channel 46 as illustrated.

It will be seen that the improved friction or drag shoe of this invention provides both greatly increased pad life and a correspondingly reduced amount of adjustment and maintenance. At the same time, the improved pad is more easily replaced when necessary by inexperienced personnel readily available to the machine user. The individual laminations from which the pad is formed are capable of being precisely shaped so that the initial pad or the reassembled pad will have an accurate cap engaging surface. This shape will be easily obtained initially and 'will be retained during subsequent remountings of these pads on the sealing machine. The above improvements are also obtained in a pad with little or no increase in initial expense so that full realization is obtained from the substantial savings resulting from the increased wear resistance which has been observed to be as much as ten times as long as the life of prior pads.

As various changes may be made in the form, construction and arrangement of the parts herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention and without sacrificing any of its advantages, it is to be understood that all matter herein is to be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

Having thus described my invention, I claim:

1. In a machine for sealing containers with caps the combination of a container conveyor, an endless belt positioned with its lower run engaging off-center portions of the tops of closure caps seated upon moving containers on said conveyor, drive means for said belt adapted to move the lower run in the direction of and faster than the moving containers, a braking member mounted adjacent said belt, said braking members having a laminated friction facing pad comprising generally similarly shaped individual laminations all formed of the same material and pressed together in a solid stack, each of said individual laminations comprising a plurality of relatively thin parallel reinforcing layers bonded together by a rubberlike bonding material, said individual laminations in said stack having one side formed at right angles to said reinforcing layers, and the stacked laminations having their said one sides arranged in said pad to form a smooth container top engaging friction surface normal to said reinforcing layers.

2. The sealing machine as claimed in claim 1, said endless belt being formed of a laminated material similar to the material of said facing pad and with the reinforcing layers of said belt being oriented generally parallel to the cap tops at the portion of said belt which is in engagement with the cap tops.

3. The pad as claimed in claim 1 in which said laminations are oriented in the direction of conveyor movement.

4. The pad as claimed in claim 1 in which said laminations are oriented at right angles to the direction of conveyor movement.

5. The friction pad as claimed in claim 1 in which said reinforcing layers comprises a fabric layer.

6. The friction pad as claimed in claim 1 in which said reinforcing layers comprises -a woven layer.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,136,370 11/1938 Bockius et a1. 188-251 X 2,599,826 6/1952 Halstead et a1. 188251 X 2,728,700 12/1955 Gatke 188-251 X 2,876,605 3/1959 McElroy et a1. 53-317 X 3,054,234 9/1962 Stover 53317 X 3,274,748 9/1966 Roberts ct al 53318 X 3,071,909 1/1963 Elleman 53-318 X FOREIGN PATENTS 604,135 4/1960 Italy. 753,410 10/ 1933 France.

TRAVIS S. MCGE'HEE, Primary Examiner.

ROBERT L. FARRIS, Assistant Examiner.

s. 01. X.R. 53-317 

